


Rebirth

by Chaosprincess



Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M, MAJOR SPOILERS for 3x15 and 3x16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2019-01-19 08:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12406821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaosprincess/pseuds/Chaosprincess
Summary: I can't even write a description without spoilers. Let's just say this is the best we can hope for.





	Rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction is dedicated to Troy Otto. If you have any desire to see the character return, please sign the following petition: https://www.change.org/p/amc-entertainment-bring-back-troy-otto
> 
> I would like to apologize for not replying to previous comments <3 I appreciate all comments and kudos on my work, but I have lots of school and homework in October. It's hard enough to get the fanfics up at all. When I have time I will thank my commenters personally, the Trick fandom has been so generous

The pain in his chest swelled briefly, crushing the air out of his lungs. Then like a wave it receded, leaving only vague imprints on the shores of his mind. The boat was swallowed by the flood. His family was gone. A small sick part of him thought _Good, our plague ends here…_ but he thought of Alicia. His sister who supported him, who loved him against all the odds. Alicia deserved so much better. And Strand… Well, Strand wasn’t perfect but Nick had liked him. They’d been close once… could have been still if things had played out differently. But it was too late for that.

“We have to go!” Daniel said.

He might as well have been a galaxy away.

Nick closed his eyes, fingers still clinging to the fence as Ofelia’s father physically lifted him, trying to carry him to safety. But it was too late for that too.

The ground fell away beneath them. 

No fear could touch Nick now. 

His body sprawled in thin air, like a dropped rag doll.

 _Take me…_ his mind whispered to merciful death, come to claim him at last after years of slipping through her cold fingers. 

He’d expected the fall to kill him, a brief burst of agony and then oblivion, but he quickly realized that wasn’t the case. He’d have to go out the hard way. The water swallowed him, filling his nose and mouth. Now he struggled, but only out of instinct. He would have let the water take him, but his body was not in agreement with his mind and shattered heart. It thrashed, desperate for life, even as Nick insisted that this would be best for them. Death would be kinder than life ever had been.

The current was strong, tossing him to and fro, thwarting his weak efforts to swim to the surface, and wasting what precious seconds remained.

Then it happened, the first violent convulsion. Nick didn’t fight it. He rode it just like any other high. There was a rush from the oxygen deprivation after all. What a perfect way for Nick Clark to go. In a moment of pure bliss, he could see Troy’s face, his smile… Then there was darkness… suspended in dark waters…

***

He shouldn’t have felt them…

The strong arms that hoisted him out of the waters, the hand in his hair….

“No, no, no, Nick? Nicky!”

A dull slap against his cheek. Pressure on his chest, not internal, as the last hours of his life had been, but external with strong hands pumping down on his stilled chest. Then fingers pinching his nose. Dad used to do that. _Got your nose..._

Lips on his own… rough and chapped. Rinse. Repeat.

“Nicky, don’t do this to me!” a hoarse and desperate voice called, so alien, so familiar.

Then repeat.

“Goddamn it!”

Then Rep-

_Pain._

Nick sputtered and vomited but he was on his back so it just choked him more. He rolled to his side and all the filthy water he had swallowed spilled out.

_No! NO! TAKE ME BACK! I WANT TO GO BACK!_

Light. His head felt like it was going to split open as the light entered his eyes. A blessed shadow blocked the sun from his face, a mane of dusty blond hair. The face came into focus, matching the voice he’d fought so hard to deny, because it was impossible.

“Troy…” 

“Ah! Thank God! You really had me going for a minute, Nicky.”

He smiled… that beautiful smile. A smile that Nick had lied for... had killed for... had nearly died and would die again and again for. 

“Where are we…?” Nick rasped.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess here, but I’m thinking downriver…? You’re lucky you washed up pretty close to me.”

Nick glanced upwards, seeing the ruins of the dam.

“Troy… are we dead?” Nick breathed. 

The wound on Troy’s head still looked fresh… and deep. Too deep for him to be walking… talking...saving Nick. Wouldn’t the debris have crushed him? Wouldn’t he have drowned if he had been out cold?

“Does it matter?” Troy asked, giving Nick that open curious look of his.

Nick thought about it. Really gave it some thought. What would being dead really change if Troy was sitting here, holding him, and feeling as real as the stone against his back, the wet clothes clinging to his skin, and the air in his lungs?

“No…” Nick said at last. “No, it doesn’t.”

He started to sit up, groaning in the effort.

“Easy, easy,” Troy soothed, rubbing his back and holding him tight. “Thought I’d lost you.”

“Yeah… Me too…”

“Wanna go back to the marketplace?”

Nick inhaled deeply, though it hurt his throat and chest. 

“...Nah…Marketplace is burned for us if any of those assholes survived... let’s just… hit the road for a while.”

“Find a new place?”

Nick shook his head.

“I’m done with destinations, Troy…. I just want the journey. With you.”

Troy grinned.

“Sounds good to me…”

**Author's Note:**

> For the love of Troy, please take the time to sign: https://www.change.org/p/amc-entertainment-bring-back-troy-otto


End file.
